'Near-miracle' lands Houston band's song on feature film

'Near-miracle' lands song on feature film

By day, they repair computers and install TV cable. But on weekends they make music -- and now their music is being heard nationwide in a new movie.

Three Houston musicians known as Toe Jam have a song in writer-director Kevin Smith's comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

The film, which opened last week, features Toe Jam's Plastic Jesus in a scene where Carrie Fisher, as a nun, picks up hitchhikers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) in her car, which has a plastic Christ figure on its dashboard.

Performed with vocals and an acoustic guitar, Plastic Jesus has the lyrics, "I don't care if it rains or freezes as long as I've got my plastic Jesus riding on the dashboard of my car."

"It was a coincidence that the song so closely fit the scene," said Ted W. Griffin, who represents the trio promotionally.

The brothers, in their 40s, work in computer repair, while Coffelt, 33, works in satellite and telecommunications installation.

They perform what Griffin calls "blues-country rockabilly."

He says it was "a near-miracle" that brought the song and the film together.

For its year of existence, Toe Jam has not released a CD or performed its music in public.

"They've never done anything except play in their living rooms for fun and relaxation," Griffin said.

For fun they recorded Plastic Jesus, a "public domain, college-type song," Griffin says, then e-mailed a copy to a friend.

"They were just messing around at Stan's house and recorded it -- and hated it," Griffin said. "They even destroyed the files because they didn't like how it turned out."

But their friend e-mailed the song to Napster, where Miramax found it.

When the studio called, Toe Jam retrieved the recording from their friend. Miramax then used that copy in the film, where 68 seconds of it plays during a scene.

Coffelt, who attended a recent preview in Austin, said he's "still in shock" to hear himself in a movie.

But he wouldn't want his grandmother to see the film, whose R rating is due to "nonstop crude and sexual humor, pervasive strong language, and drug content."

Plastic Jesus does not appear on the soundtrack album.

"What Miramax offered wasn't a whole lot," Griffin said. But Toe Jam has re-recorded the song for an album of its own.

"We'll put it on a CD with original music," said Griffin, who has a publishing company. "It's the same, just a little better sounding. Now we're working on copyrights and looking for a label."

He estimates Toe Jam won't release its debut album for at least two months. Meanwhile, they're trying to get the song on local radio -- with no success so far.

Still, they're thrilled to have it in a movie, even though they weren't "adequately compensated," Griffin said. "But the guys are so astounded it's in the film that they'd have probably done it for free."